• Doctors are increasingly worried about loneliness.
  • Vivek Murthy, a former surgeon-general of the United States, called loneliness an epidemic, likening its impact on health to obesity or smoking 15 cigarettes per day.
  • A study found that in America people always or often feel lonely.
  • A study published in 2010 using this scale estimated that 35% of Americans over 45 were lonely.